NYC adventures.

As you may or may not know, Jewel and I are spending the weekend in New York City. We're staying with college friends of Jewel's, and they're showing us a great time. Yesterday, we spent the evening at a tiny and incredible bar called the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, where they were having a poetry slam. Now, I studied poetry in college quite a bit and I like to think I know my way around writing some, but these people blew me away. The wordplay, the imagery, the rhetoric, and the raw emotions -- rage, sadness, cynical humor, whatever -- were incredible and inspiring. After the show, I told Jewel it might be cool to try and start a slam team in New Bern. We'll see what develops.

Today, Jewel and her lady friends decided to go on a shopping odyssey (about which I'm sure Jewel will post more later). I took this opportunity to head over to Broadway on my own and see a show (since Jewel wasn't so hot on the theatre this weekend). Even though I was running pretty late, I decided to head over to TKTS just to see what I could find. I ended up getting a relatively cheap orchestra seat for American Idiot.

I had been pretty excited about this show since hearing about its start at Berkeley, and I was generally pleased with what I saw. The set was unique, the band solid, the vocals on point, and the performances pretty engaging. I read a review this evening that said the characters weren't all that round, and I have to agree, but I can't say it took away too much from the show. My major criticisms were the choreography and the dialogue; both seemed not quite as polished as they ought to have been for Broadway. Even so, it was an afternoon well spent. I'm always happy to see a show in New York -- I feel like I haven't really been here if I don't.

Later in the afternoon, I met up with the ladies and we headed to the bevy of bootleg shops that line Canal Street. I'll post a few pictures later when I have a chance. For now, we're out to dinner, drinks, and the like. Also: I think we're going to check out the High Line tomorrow, which I'm pretty excited about (though usually outdoorsy Jewel is less so).

Hope your weekend is adventurous as well (or not, if you so prefer).

-- its